social media – Page 2 – Small Business Odyssey

January 2, 2012January 5, 2012

Share Content with your Circles Via the Google Plus Stream

The Google Plus Stream is the lifeblood of Google+. It enables sharing of information to Circles and has a lot of the characteristics of Facebook’s status updates. You can share ideas, status updates, photos, videos, links and your location (if you really want to!).

The Share box is accessible via the Google Plus homepage. You have a few icons you can click on to share specific types of information or you can just enter text in the Share box:

In line with Google+ Privacy Policy, you can specify who you share each post with. You can identify specific Circles or all Circles (public). Icons for suggested circles are shown (e.g. Acquaintances and Friends in the image above) and you can add more Circles by clicking on ‘+add more people’. You can delete a suggested Circle from your distribution by clicking on the delete button (X) in the respective Circle icon.

You can see that yet again Google Plus is deadly serious about giving you control over your privacy by allowing you to determine the desired distribution for each post.

What should you share in your Google Plus Stream?

I have discussed what types of content you can share in your Google Plus Stream, but what exactly should you share? The fundamental rule to remember is that your Stream on your personal Google Plus page should be about CONVERSATION NOT CONVERSION! If you indulge in a constant sales pitch, you will be very quickly dumped from multiple circles (…and defeat the whole purpose of using the Google+ network, which is to expand your contacts).

So think about the things that you find engaging and share something similar. Here’s a list of the kinds of posts that catch my attention and tend to encourage me to share with others:

informative
visually appealing
peaceful
intriguing
humorous
enlightening
challenging
insightful
reflective

So your purpose in posting to the Google Plus Stream is to share something of yourself, enhance your personal branding and provide content that others find useful or appealing and are inspired to share in their own Circles. In this way, your posts will have a viral effect.

The central Stream on your Google Plus Homepage is the accumulation of all the posts from people in your Circles (who included you in their distribution when sharing).

What to do with posts in your Google Plus Stream that you don’t want

You have a range of options in relation to each post that arrives in your Google Plus Stream if you don’t want to retain them or make them visible to others:

Report abuse
Mute this post (no longer visible)
Block this person

The options button is somewhat faint but you will see it beside each post as illustrated below and highlighted by the red arrow I’ve included in the screenshot:

How to ‘like’ posts in your Google Plus Stream

If you want to ‘like’ a post there are a number of ways to do this. Included in the options mentioned in the previous section of this post is an option “Link to this post” which enables you to copy the link for the post and share it with others (it is mystifying why this option is inlcuded with the other “dislike” options).

However, there are a number of other options which are more clearly displayed immediately below each post as indicated in this screenshot:

These options are explained briefly below:

+1 – indicates you really like the post and want to save it to your ‘favorites’ (this is an expansive topic and will be the subject of a separate post).
Comment – see below for further elaboration.
Share – with Circles that you specify when you click on this option.
Hang Out – Chat with the originator and others you choose to include (more on this in another post).

How to comment effectively on Posts in your Google Plus Stream

I have previously discussed at length how to comment on social media content in such a way as to build a positive online profile and brand image. The same principles apply when commenting on posts in your Google Plus stream.

You can see from the following example how a simple comment can generate a reciprocal response. Chris Brogan shared a video and a personal comment about the originator of the video, Tom Terwilliger. I watched the video and left a comment on Chris Brogan’s post. Tom responded and so we have the beginnings of a conversation:

So to reiterate, the primary principle behind your sharing through the Google Plus stream must be to focus on conversation not conversion.

January 1, 2012

Grow Your Google Plus Circles to Build Your Profile Online

Circles are a core element of Google Plus. They enable you to place people in different groupings depending on your level of association with them, e.g. friends, acquaintances, family. Circles enable the unique privacy approach of Google Plus to operate. You can specify which circles will have access to what information. As I explained in my previous post, one simple example of this is the ability to specify who has access to the links that you include in your Google Plus profile. [Image Credit: mrnilspeters]

You can access your circles by clicking on the ‘circles’ button at the top of your Google Plus page as illustrated below:

Adding “friends” into your Google Plus Circles

The first thing to be aware of is that you can add as many circles as you want and specify their names, e.g. work colleagues, Squidoo contacts, customers. If you add too many circles, your circles and privacy settings will become unmanageable. However, the circle facility enables you to effectively categorise your contacts and manage your communications with them – you don’t have to lump them all into one large group of ‘friends’.

You can add people to your circles by using the drag-and-drop facility provided when you click on the Circles button. The avatars of people will be displayed depending on the choices you make from the menu provided (illustrated below):

For example , if you click on “people who have added you”, you will see the avatars of all the people who have added you to a circle on their Google Plus account. However, you will not be able to see what specific circle you have been placed in by these people. If you hover over the avatars you will see whether they are already in one of your circles or how many people you have in common in your respective circles. The following image shows an example of the avatars as they will be displayed. The ones with the symbol in the top right hand corner are those who you have also added to your circles. You can work your way through the others and add people to your different circles as desired.

As I mentioned in my introductory post about Google Plus, you will also receive notifications of people who have added you to their circles. If you click on the notifications button on the Google Plus toolbar (right-hand side), you will see thumbnail images of people who have added you to a Google Plus circle and you will have the facility to easily add any of these to one of your circles (click the ‘arrow’ beside the thumbnails and you will have access to a drop-down menu).

Google Plus makes it very easy to add people to your circles. As indicated in one of the above images, when you click on the circles button, one of the options displayed is “Find People’. Google Plus explains how the resultant list of avatars is generated for you:

Find People – Our best guess for people who you may want to add to a circle. Get more suggestions by importing your contacts from your email account.

As indicated, you can actually import contacts from your email accounts – Yahoo, Hotmail or by uploading your email address book (see image below):

So Google gives you multiple options for adding people to your Google Plus circles, encourages you to expand your social network and to effectively manage your communications with your circles. You can even tailor your perosnal profile information for different circles (e.g. making personal information only available to your “family” circle). On top of this, you can specify which of your circles you want to hear from. The following YouTube video from Google Plus gives you more information on how to create and use circles:

Google Plus circles gives you a very effective way to manage your contacts, increase your online exposure and develop new sets of relationships, including those with existing and potential customers.

December 26, 2011

7 Major Changes in Small Business Marketing in 2011

As 2011 comes to a close, it is instructive to reflect on the massive changes to small business marketing that occurred during the year and to look at their implications. These changes were driven by a number of landmark events that spawned innovations.

One of the key drivers of the changes that small business marketing confronts today, and into 2012, is the direct competition between Google and Facebook for Number One position on the Internet (and all the revenue that goes with this position). The impact of this competition is being felt throughout the Internet marketing world and in social media. There are many people becoming disengaged by the endless changes created by the two Giants of the Internet as they try to outpace each other. One possible prognosis is that this could open up the arena for another player who undermines the customer base of the both the big players, as Facebook did to MySpace.

I want to focus on seven (7) key changes as a way to highlight the impacts from a small business marketing perspective. This approach is in line with my suggestion to write blog posts in sets and sevens. So here are the seven key changes in 2011 affecting small business marketing:

1. Google Places upgrade and resurgence

Google introduced improvements to Google Places, the platform for local businesses to highlight their location, hours of business and their products/services. Along with these changes, Google gave new prominence to Google Places in local search results, changing the display and increasing the value of a Google Places web presence. Sadly, very few small businesses understand the value of this change and have failed to take up their allotted Google Places website. In 2012, Google Places will be an absolutely essential part of your small business marketing. Without it, you may find yourself dropping deeper and deeper in the list of local search engine results as your competitors make full use of this facility (one which Google itself hosts!).

2. Changes to Facebook Pages

The big news of 2011, was that Facebook had more web traffic (visitors) in March than Google and took over the Number One position in terms of search engine volume. The race is now on and Google and Facebook are involved in a head-on tussle to capture (or retain) the number one position. This competition has generated many changes on both sites. Facebook has made major changes to its Facebook Pages to make further inroads into the business market. These changes have complicated the scene for small business marketing. It has meant that many small business owners have had to ignore Facebook or engage small business marketing consultants (who are struggling themselves to keep up with the changes). But how can you ignore the Number One source of web traffic that is also a social media site with over 700 Million members?

3. Introduction of Google Plus and Google +1

Google quickly responded to Facebook’s resurgence with the introduction of its own social network, Google Plus. It also introduced an equivalent to the Facebook “Like” in the form of the Google +1 button. There are other major changes in Google’s search algorithm and results display that accompanied these changes. The challenge for small business owners is, “How can you keep abreast of these changes and their implications for small business marketing?”. Again, you cannot afford to ignore the Google changes or your competition will be appearing in a much more prominent way than you as Google attempts to “reward’ those who get on board with its new social network and related changes.

4. The resurgence of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest online network focused on business and in 2011 grew to over 130 Million members. LinkedIn is a new and growing force in small business marketing. Depending on the nature of your business, it can be a critical component of your small business marketing, particularly in the light of the overall growth of social networking which looks like continuing unabated in 2012. The introduction of status updates by LinkedIn is an attempt to utilise its growing power to move into the Big League occupied by Facebook and Google.

5. The growth of local marketing

During 2011, there was a massive switch of focus by Internet marketers from affiliate marketing to local marketing. This was driven in part by two influences, (1) the decline of affiliate income owing to the depressed economy in the US and (2) and the recognition that around 80% of business for offline businesses comes from within a 5 kilometre radius. The changes to Google Places and the emergence of social networking ‘review” sites, intensified this new focus. What it means for your small business marketing is that you have to make the most of online local marketing tools because your competitors are being courted daily by Internet marketers who see this area of consulting as a the new “goldmine”. The new superstars of Internet marketing generate their income from monthly retainers paid by businesses, small and large, for local marketing services.

6. The massive growth of mobile marketing

With the advent of the Smart Phone and the associated growth of mobile usage, mobile marketing has taken off as the new frontier for Internet marketing. This growth is being aided by the focus on local marketing and has spawned the development of thousands of apps for mobile phones. Two new areas of online riches are emerging, (1) the creation and sale of mobile phone apps and (2) the development of mobile marketing strategies and tools (software). As a small business marketer, you are going to need mobile compatible websites and mobile marketing tools. One advantage of Google Places discussed above is that it is already mobile-compatible – which is another reason why it is so critical for small business marketing.

7. 2011 – The Year of the PlugIn

With so many changes on so many fronts, WordPress developers have had a field day. There has been a massive growth in WordPress Plugin development in 2011. I receive an invite every day to purchase two or three new plugins. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep abreast of these software innovations. However, the WordPress plugins are designed to make it easier for you to accommodate your small business marketing to the changes that are occurring in Internet marketing. Many of the plugins help you to automate your small business marketing process.

In succeeding posts, I will further explain these 2011 changes and highlight their implications for small business marketing moving into 2012.

December 21, 2011

Squidoo Has a Special Relationship with Google

Let’s talk about Squidoo and its relationship with Google. Google and Squidoo have some goals in common. For example, they both want original content on websites (lenses) that are frequently updated. They both want quality and not spam. They each want to see the searcher satisfied when they use their respective platforms. One of the goals of the founders of Squidoo, for example, was to create a quality search engine.

Squidoo and Google also have some differences. While both want to generate a profit, one of Seth Godin’s goals in creating Squidoo was to generate $100 Million for charity – hence, the option for Lensmasters to donate their advertising revenue to approved Squidoo charities.

The Professional relationship between Squidoo and Google

Some time past, Seth Godin provided strategic advice on a consultancy basis to Google. As one of the world’s leading Internet marketers, Seth was well placed to do this. He has a million readers a day for his blog, Seth Godin’s Blog. He has also written 10 New York Bestsellers on the topic of Internet Marketing.

However, the relationship is on a professional basis. When Squidoo was attacked by a lot of spammers, Google had no hesitation in downgrading Squidoo to protect their own revenue base derived from quality search results. You can read about this ‘Google Slap’ story on my Squidoo Marketing Strategies lens and see way Squidoo responded to improve its overall quality.

The relationship is back on a sound footing with Google re-establishing Squidoo’s high ranking and value in search results.

How can you help the relationship between Google and Squidoo?

Fundamentally, you contribute positively to this relationship when you create quality lenses that have original content and are updated on a regular basis. When you join Squidoo you effectively sign up to the Originality Pact which I discussed in an earlier post.

The challenge is to maintain the quality and currency of your Squidoo lenses in the face of many other time consuming tasks. This is a tall order if you have a lot of Squidoo lenses. Developing techniques to improve your online productivity can help here. You might like to visit my lens on improving personal productivity for some ideas.

The reward of Squidoo’s relationship with Google

The core benefit from this relationship is that Google values quality Squidoo lenses highly. So once you create a quality lens and update it on a regular basis, you will be rewarded with an improved page rank, higher positioning in search engine results and improved web traffic. I have found that it is much easier to achieve a high page rank from Google with a Squidoo lens than it is with a blog or a website.

It has also been my anecdotal experience too that, since I became a Giant Squid, I have been indexed more quickly by Google.

One of the interesting things is that Google accords each Squidoo lens a page rank different from that of the Squidoo platform itself. Here’s some examples of my lenses:

A. Keyword: squidoo marketing strategies

Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Google Results: Position 1

Google Page Rank: 4

B. Keyword: improve personal productivity

Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/improve-personal-productivity

Google Results: Position 2

Google Page Rank: 2

C. Keyword: tropical rainforest walk

Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/tropicalrainforest

Google Results: Position 7

Google Page Rank: 3

These results come from screenshots taken of Google search results with the added information provided by SEO Quake – a free plugin & toolbar for use with Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

The quality of the relationship between Squidoo and Google is dependent on the quality and originality of Squidoo lenses – if you create excellent Squidoo lenses you can expect good page rank and high positions in Google’s search results for targeted keywords.

December 20, 2011December 20, 2011

Squidoo is a Marketing Platform

Squidoo was designed for marketers by an Internet marketer, Seth Godin. So Seth Godin’s Internet marketing principles are embedded in the Squidoo platform design.

In this post, I’ll explore some of the characteristics of the Squidoo platform design and how you can best make use of these features to further your small business marketing.

[Image Credit: teamstickergiant]

Inbuilt coding for indexing by search engines

If you know any of the technical jargon about guiding the indexing of your website by the search engines (search engine optimisation), then you will have heard of meta tags – basically signposts for the search engine bots that crawl your website for indexing purposes.

These meta tags tell the search engines what your site is about (site description) and what keywords (search terms) you are focusing on. Normally, you have to create these meta tags yourself. However, with Squidoo, they are built into the Squidoo platform. So to take advantage of this you need to do the following:

ensure that the name of your Squidoo lens (lens URL) contains your targeted keyword
include your primary keyword in the lens description
ensure that your primary tag is the same as the keyword in the lens title and description
use your keyword, or variations of it, in your module headings
ensure your keyword features in your introduction
use tags that are clearly relevant to your primary keyword.

Above all, avoid ‘keyword stuffing’ or overuse of keywords to a point where what you write is meaningless. Primary keywords, and related words, should occur naturally throughout your writing.

Each lens is a single web page enabling deep indexing by the search engines

The way the Squidoo platform is structured means that each lens is seen by the search engines as a single page, even if the lens is more than 45 modules long as is my primary Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

The net effect of this is that the Google search engine bots can readily engage in deep indexing of Squidoo lenses – which means that your Squidoo lens gets indexed from top to bottom (including comments). Many webmasters and bloggers engage in all kinds of activities to get Google to index beyond the first page of their websites. With Squidoo this activity is unnecessary as the Squidoo site is designed to facilitate deep indexing by Google and the other search engines.

I have written about this deep indexing in an article on the article directory, Ezinearticles.com, and explained how this takes place:

Squidoo and Search Engine Indexing

In a another article, I elaborated further on how to make the best use of the fact that the search engines index the whole of a Squidoo lens (deep indexing):

Top 10 Tips to Encourage Deep Indexing of Squidoo Lenses

Squidoo lenses are indexed for multiple keywords

One of things that I discovered through building many Squidoo lenses (100+) is that Google indexes Squidoo lenses for multiple keywords. One of my lenses on Digital Storytelling was found through more than 300+ search terms (over a 3 month period) on Google’s search results. This means that Google had indexed my Squidoo lens for more than 300 keywords and searchers were able to find my lens through multiple search terms. The net effect of this for small business marketing is that by creating Squidoo lenses you are increasing the chances of people finding your website/blog because of the way Google indexes the lenses.

This whole process is illustrated in a PDF document I produced as one of the bonuses of my Social Media Training Program. This PDF demonstrates how Google indexes Squidoo lenses, shows you how to check your own lenses for indexing by Google and explains how to maximise the chances of your Squidoo lens being found on Google and other search engines. The core strategy in relation to the last point, is the use of ‘long tail keywords’ (keywords containing three or more words). The PDF can be downloaded here (includes a listing of the 300+ keywords for my digital storytelling lens):

http://www.squidooroo.com/Downloads/DeepIndexingofSquidooLenses.pdf

This multiple indexing of Squidoo lenses is not something to be taken lightly. I have subsequently discovered that another of my lenses, Tropical Rainforest Walk, has been found through Google via more than 600 search terms.

Small business marketing can get a real boost from the fundamental design of Squidoo lenses as the Squidoo platform encourages indexing by search engines, facilitates deep indexing and creates the opportunity for indexing of multiple keywords from the one Squidoo lens.